I have been super busy. Interestingly, it’s easy to work hard when you love what you’re doing and all you get is positive feedback and nobody yet giving your work a one-star review, publicly wishing that they could burn it. However, I am also learning just how frustrating art could be. So frustrating, in fact, that I wanted to throw my last painting into the garbage bin:

Yep, this one almost did not happen, because at some point I’d decided that I just can’t. Freaking. Blend. Acrylics:

It was late at night. Josh went to bed, after trying to cajole me for an hour to give it a rest, which is not something I do often. I finally gave up and decided that this one was not to be. Some famous painter said that he was happy if one out of ten paintings was good, so the next morning I started playing with it. Then an amazing thing happened – because I had already written this particular piece of canvas off, I was no longer scared to try bold colors and fearless highlights. And somehow, (I am once again completely puzzled at how this happened), I made a painting at which I just. Can’t. Stop. Staring.

This is my number four and the first one that has a name. Persistence. Because she taught me not to stop and now that I know, I will continue no matter how ugly the progress stages get. I didn’t even take the most shocking one, where I scraped back her cheeks. Here are the ones I did take:

10 responses to “The one I almost threw away”

Wonderful piece! You’ve discovered 2 secrets which take artists YEARS to discover! 1: Push the boundaries! Explore! Experiment! Try new things! 2: exaggerate the highlights and the shadows, the warm and cool tones!

As a former private art teacher I’ve had many people come to me when they were stuck in a piece and didn’t know how to finish it. Invariably their piece was all midtone and lacked true darks and lights! By exaggerating those two areas a piece looks more natural!

Those tone actually do exist in nature but our brains tend to mute them or average the colors. By training ourselves to really look we can see them pop!

I’m sure you’ll see new colors and tones all around you now that your brain has broken through that barrier!

You have found your calling…. I’ll be able to say in the future ” I knew her when…” she accomplished everything she attempted and did it better than anyone else. YOU are encouraging me to go for my dreams. Thank you, Ana. Persistence is incredible!! I wonder what other hidden talents you have?? Are you doing all this painting on top of your stressful job? No matter what all of them are incredible! Can’t wait to see your next painting. And you started off painting one of the hardest things to paint, people. You make them look real and alive. Every painting starts off rough but it all comes together at the end. I’ve got an idea, paint Josh. That’s your next challenge. Go,Ana!! 🙂